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Ethics and Research

Peter Lugosi

What are ethics?

A set of prescriptive moral rules and behavioural codes relating to what is right or wrong, or appropriate and inappropriate.

Different approaches to ethics

• Concerned with universal moral principles and duties towards others. (Deontological)

• Concerned with the consequences of specific actions. This is usually assessed through a cost/benefit analysis. (Utilitarian)

Respectfor persons

and autonomy

JusticeFair distribution

of benefits; fairness ofprocesses

Fidelity andscientificintegrity

TrustOpen, honest,

inclusive relationships

Beneficenceand

nonmaleficence

EthicalPrinciples

Following Brewster Smith (2000)

Why are ethics important?

1. Moral reasons

• Researchers have obligations to respondents/ participants, funding bodies and research organisations, and a broader stakeholder community.

• Misrepresentation, harm, discomfort, bias, misplaced loyalty and conflicts of interest.

Why are ethics important?

2. Instrumental reasons

• Risk management (physical, psychological, social, economic, and legal risks)

• Ethical review part of the research development process (and its associated bureaucracy)

Why are ethics important?

3. Pragmatic reasons

Questioning your ethical position leads you to question your aims, objectives, your motivations and the way you set about realising all this (i.e., your methods).

Ethics as a prism

http://mirror-uk-rb1.gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/natural-science/prism-and-refraction-of-light-into-rainbow-AJHD.jpg

Ethics as a prism: Illumination or distortion?

TrustJustice

BeneficenceNonmaleficence

Respect for autonomyFidelity and integrity

Research aims and objectivesMethodsRelationshipsParticipantsOutcomesAudienceRisks/benefits/contributions

ReshapedResearch aims and objectivesMethodsRelationshipsParticipantsOutcomesAudienceRisks/benefits/contributions

Planning for research and choosing the topic

-Has it been explored? If so, by whom and how? If not, why not?

-Who are the stakeholder; who may it harm and/or benefit and how?

-Funding, politics and conflicts of interest.

-What are the potential consequences of your work?

-How can these risks be avoided, negotiated/ minimised or justified?

Deciding on the methodology

-Minimising risks and maximising data generation

-Ethics, validity and triangulation

-Action research: data gathering vs intervention

Entering the field

-If you are deciding to enter someone's 'space', how are you going to achieve this?

-When and where are you going to approach them?

-Again, are there risks involved, and if so, who does the research place at risk, and how?

-What boundaries exist and how can or should they be overcome?

-Do they in fact reveal something more important?

Explaining work and cooperation

-Informed consent

-Maintaining informed consent over time

-Clarity and adequacy of explanation

-Routines, spiels and scripts

Understanding the relationship between researcher, the field and respondents/participants

-Friends, colleagues, informants, participants, respondents or subjects?

-Reciprocity

-Revelations and confessions

-Deals and promises (sharing results, insights etc)

-Access, overt/covertness, informed consent and sampling

Collecting and recording data

-Practicalities of fieldwork. How can you accurately record information, especially about social events?

-Do your respondents know and approve of what you have recorded?

-Non response and room for silence (in qualitative and quantitative research)

Storing data

-Is your data sensitive?

-Can it put people at risk if it falls into the hands of certain people?

-How are you going to protect your data, your interests and the interests of your informants?

Analysing, interpreting and communicating findings

-Honesty with data and interpretation (biases, convenient readings etc)

-Participative inquiry/analysis, source checking

-Presenting identities, personal or 'troubling' information?

-Sharing your results or conclusions with individuals or organisations?

Analysing, interpreting and communicating findings

-Anticipating feedback and reactions

-Ownership of data and publishing

-Implications of research and interpretation

Closing thoughts

Ethics as intellectual inquiry (or self-indulgence), institutional practice or a critical prism

It can be destructive and a threat: creating unnecessary boundaries and obstacles

It can also be a constructive process and opportunity: encouraging rigour and nuanced understanding of the research process, its stakeholders and outcomes

Questions of ethics are increasingly unavoidable

Be aware of institutional discourses; use existing literature/cases, consult with a range of colleagues, peers and “participants” as points of reference to develop your “moral career”

Questions?

Further reading

Beauchamp, T., Faden, R., Wallace, J., & Walters, L. (Eds.). (1982). Ethical issues in social scientific research. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Bulmer, M. (ed.) (1982) Social Research Ethics: An Examination of the Merits of Covert Participant Observation, London: Macmillan.

Brewster Smith (2000) Moral foundations in research with human participants. In B. Sales and S. Folkman (Eds.), Ethics in Research with Human Participants (pp. 3-10). Washington: APA.

Christians, C. G. (2000). Ethics and politics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.) (pp. 133-155). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

de Laine, M. (2000) Fieldwork, Participation and Practice: Ethics and Dilemmas in Qualitative Research. London: Sage.

Duncombe, J., & Jessop, J. (2002). ‘Doing rapport’ and ethics of ‘faking friendship.’ In M. Mauthner, M. Birch, J. Jessop, & T. Miller (Eds.), Ethics in qualitative research (pp. 107-122). London: Sage.

Finch, J. (1984). It’s great to have someone to talk to: The ethics and politics of interviewing women. In C. Bell, & H. Roberts (Eds.), Social researching: Politics, problems, practice (pp. 70-87). London: Routledge.

Homan, R. (1991) The Ethics of Social Research. London: Longman.

Further reading

Kimmel, A. J. (1996). Ethical Issues in Behavioral Research: A survey. Oxford: Blackwell.

Leo, R. A. (1995). Trial and tribulations: Courts, ethnography, and the need for an evidentiary privilege for academic researchers. The American Sociologist 26(1): 113-134.

Lugosi, P. (2006) Between Overt and Covert Research: Concealment and Revelation in an Ethnographic Study of Commercial Hospitality. Qualitative Inquiry 12(3): 541-561.

Oakes, J. M. (2002). Risks and wrongs in social science research: An evaluator’s guide to the IRB. Evaluation Review, 26(5), 443-479.

Punch, M. (1986). The politics and ethics of fieldwork. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Punch, M. (1994). Politics and ethics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 83-97). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Qualitative Inquiry (2007) Special issue on research ethics Volume 13, Number 3 (This journal has several other articles on the subject)

Shaffir, W. B. and Stebbins, R. A. (eds.) (1991) Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of Qualitative Research, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.